Clearbrook Village Financed for $3.8M

The Class C Clearbrook Village complex was built in the mid-1970s and has about 150 one- and two-bedroom units totaling 120,000 square feet. It is situated on 10.4 acres on the north side of Winchester Road between Tall Oaks Circle to the west and Clearbrook Street to the east. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2012 appraisal is $2.2 million, up from a 2011 appraisal of $1.9 million.

RVC Outdoor Destinations Expands to Western US

RVC Outdoor Destinations – a Memphis-based owner and operator of upscale, resort-like campgrounds – is expanding west with its acquisition of the Garden of the Gods Campground in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The 200-site property is located near the entrance of the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center, with views of Pikes Peak, the most visited mountain in North America. The property has been the top RV and outdoor lodging destination in the region but has been under bank ownership since 2010.

RVC has begun stabilizing operations and will begin renovating the property immediately. Renovations will include an overall upgrade of the property and its amenities, including enhancing tent sites and incorporating them into current on-property cabins for a unique camping experience, resurfacing pools, improving existing RV sites and adding eight new, concrete RV sites. In the coming weeks, RVC will rebrand the property from Garden of the Gods Campground to Garden of the Gods RV Resort, and will re-flag it as an RVC Outdoor Destination by the start of 2013.

– Sarah Baker

FedEx Donates $2.5M for Liberty Bowl Work

FedEx has donated $2.5 million to the University of Memphis to complete renovation of the video scoreboard and sound system at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

The school said in a news release Monday there is an August deadline for the project, in time for the Tigers’ first home game Sept. 1 against the University of Tennessee-Martin.

Athletic Director R.C. Johnson said the renovation will result in a state-of-the-art video and sound system to rival the top scoreboards in the country.

Capturion Network of Laurel, Miss., will do the work.

– The Associated Press

American Cafe Shutters Memphis Presence

The American Café in Germantown’s The Shops of Saddle Creek shopping center has closed its doors.

A spokeswoman for the Maryville, Tenn.-based chain confirmed Monday, April 30, that the lease had expired for the casual sit-down and take-out eatery at 2055 West St., suite 20.

The last day of business for the 4,700-square-foot restaurant was Sunday, April 29. American Café opened in Saddle Creek in September 1989, under the name Silver Spoon.

“At this point, we have just started to actively pursue a replacement tenant,” said The Shops of Saddle Creek specialty/short-term leasing specialist Kenneth Taylor.

The American Café once operated a location in Wolfchase Galleria, which is also no longer open.

– Sarah Baker

Mercer Capital Promotes Parris to Vice President

Lucas Parris has been promoted to vice president at Memphis-based Mercer Capital.

Parris joined Mercer in 2004 and is a senior member of the valuation firm’s Financial Statement Reporting Valuation Group.

Mercer president Matt Crow said Lucas has played a key role in developing the firm’s financial statement reporting practice and insurance industry expertise.

Mercer is a full-service business valuation firm that offers financial advisory services and expert testimony for clients in every industry.

– Andy Meek

Delta Air Lines Buys Pennsylvania Refinery

Delta Air Lines has bought on oil refinery near Philadelphia in a $150 million deal that the airline with a Memphis hub said should help stabilize the price of jet fuel that airline executives have cited as a major factor in its fare hikes and cuts in capacity.

The Delta subsidiary Monroe Energy LLC has an agreement to buy the Trainer oiler refinery south of Philadelphia from Phillips 66 for a $150 million investment. The deal includes pipeline and transportation assets that will provide jet fuel to Delta’s northeast U.S. hubs including its operations at LaGuardia and JFK airports in New York. The rest of the deal is a three-year pact in which BP will supply the crude oil to the refiner.

Distribution to other parts of Delta’s network in the U.S. would come through exchanges of oil products from Trainer for jet fuel made by Phillips 66 and BP elsewhere in the country.

Delta CEO Richard Anderson said Monday, April 30, buying the refinery is “an innovative approach to managing our largest expense” and estimated the set of agreements including those for the pipeline and transportation assets to carry the product will provide 80 percent of Delta’s fuel needs in the U.S.

“This modest investment, the equivalent of the list price of a new widebody aircraft, will allow Delta to reduce its fuel expense by $300 million annually and ensure jet fuel availability in the northeast,” Anderson said in a written statement.

– Bill Dries

UTHSC Receives $1.5M National Eye Institute Grant

Dr. Mitchell Watsky, professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received a grant totaling nearly $1.5 million from the National Eye Institute, a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s medical research agency

The award will fund a four-year study called “Vitamin D Metabolism and Function in the Cornea and Anterior Segment,” which will study the cornea.

The major source of vitamin D is from skin exposure to sunlight. Because the eye is also exposed to sunlight, Watsky wants to determine if vitamin D can also be synthesized by the eye, if it plays a role in how the eye functions, and whether pathologically low levels of vitamin D are harmful to the eye.

It’s estimated that more than 50 percent of the U.S. population has vitamin D insufficiency. Of the thousands of published studies devoted to reviewing vitamin D, less than a handful have examined vitamin D in the cornea and front part of the eye.

Research will be used to determine how vitamin D finds its way to the anterior segment and will also examine its physiological role in the eye. To date, initial findings from Watsky’s laboratory indicate vitamin D is important for the normal function of the cornea, and that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in ophthalmic diseases such as glaucoma.

– Aisling Maki

Tenn. House Passes Health Care Compact

A proposal that would allow Tennessee to join an interstate compact challenging the federal health care law has been approved by the House after the chamber approved several changes sponsored by Democrats.

The measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Mark Pody of Lebanon was approved on a 63-27 vote on Tuesday.

The companion bill passed the Senate 22-9 last year, but the upper chamber would have to agree to the changes before the measure could head for the governor’s consideration.

The legislation would provide a waiver for each participating state to create its own health care system. Sponsors say the proposal is intended to give Tennesseans more choices concerning health care if the compact were approved by Congress.

The main change approved Tuesday would make Tennessee’s participation in the compact optional.